Driving the first spike

 Just in-case if some are wondering what the layout looks like here is some photos and drawings of how I did the planing.

My first layout plan was to use the whole basement of my new house but after discussing the plan with some fellow modelers they said, although quite elaborate it would take a lot of time to complete. I planned to use one of  Ian Rice's plans from his book Mid-sized and Manageable Track Plans "Portland Maine to the Notch". After studying the plan and doing more research I decided to down size the layout greatly. Some major contributing factors were future family plans and expansion of our home as our basement is at present unfinished.

So I went to plan B an old Model Railroader Magazine article that featured Crawford Notch but again I deemed this layout too big for the space I wanted to use. Also I didn't feel that this plan had what I wanted in the new layout. So on to plan C I searched the many plan books and magazine articles I have and came up with a free lanced plan loosely based in the southern foot hills of New Hampshire.

The plan I came up with has a single track mainline in a bent dog bone configuration with 22" radius on the main and 18" radius on the branch lines. I choose to focus on branch line and small town operations with an interchange with one or two other roads. The turnouts are #4 and all the track is either snap track or flex track from Atlas. The maximum grade is 4%. The table construction is 2x4 legs and 1/4 inch plywood top with  2" foam board as a scenery base.

Boston And Maine Units

 While cleaning out a box left over from the move from Maine I found these gems. 

New things for 2012

Hello and welcome to the new year.

I have been very busy with life in general as of late, so I have had little time to work on the layout, but things are slowing down and I plan to do some maintenance work and track work. I am adding a second switch in the east end of the yard as I have found that to turn trains is a headache with the current design of the yard.





I have bought some signals and controller boards from the atlas signaling system and are experimenting with them. I plan to install them on the junction side of East Falls.Also I am currently working on a layout plan for the town of east falls and possible branch line  expansion to Grafton for the local industries there.

First on my list for the new year is to finish all ballast work, most of the work is done but I still have to finish the yard and main in Grafton.( update main line in Grafton is done still need to finish yard ) Those of you who do follow the page I have finalized the plan for a new grade crossing at east falls as I did not like the old ones (a bit out dated) so a brand new Walters cantilever crossing will be going in soon. I hope to finish detailing the old part of the layout (east falls to lumber yard) before the end of February.This will be a big task, lots of scenery to place and little detail things to do i.e. people cars, trucks, basically all the stuff that brings the layout to life. I am still working on a formal operating session but for now it's just switch a few cars here, run a extra there. etc.

Custom paint and decals finished

Check out the new additions to the fleet on the workbench page.

Let me know what you think.

I'll start off with a brief intro, when I was about ten I was introduced to model railroading as more or less a out put for the abundance of energy that I had. My first train set was a life like special from the local toy store, a Santa Fe engine with two box cars, a gondola and a caboose. A year or so passed and I bought my first real engine a Athern GP7 in the Maine Central green and yellow scheme. From there it's history. The current roster has two GE dash 8 40b's several u boats including baby boats and  u23b's, a few EMD's including GP 7's, 8's, 9's, 38's, 40's and 60m. Also currently on the workbench are some custom cars for chip service.

Location 

 This is the second layout I have built the first was in my childhood home in Maine. I learned a lot in that 8' x 4' layout, what works and doesn't work.The old layout was DC the new layout is DCC. I will post some pictures of the old layout soon. The location of the old layout was more or less anything goes no location no specific time. With the new layout I decided to be more specific so I decided to do the main central harvest gold scheme but in present day. The layout will interchange with Boston and Maine, CP rail and a fictitious local called the New Hampshire railway company. The layout will be based in the south western part of New Hampshire as that is where I currently reside and it has several railroads to draw inspiration from.